Commercially available compounded cocoa compositions contain cocoa powder, sucrose as a main sweetener, and other ingredients such as dairy products, emulsifiers, edible salt, flavors, vegetable fats and oils, etc. Compounded cocoa compositions, as dissolved in water, warm water or milk for drinking, are widely preferred for its mild taste and a mellow aroma.
Containing about 10% by weight of sucrose as a sweetener, the conventional compounded cocoa compositions have as high calories as about 53 kcal/100 g, and such a high intake of calories is unfavorable from the standpoint of prevention of obesity and adult diseases. Not confined to compounded cocoa, the use of sucrose has come to be problematical in other beverages. Accordingly, many sucrose-free foods featuring low calories have been developed in the beverage field and come on the market.
However, foods containing sweeteners having a high degree of sweetness, for example, those containing Aspartame or Stevia as a main sweetener are unpleasant to the taste in that the sweet aftertaste remains for some time.
Processes for producing sweeteners such as erythritol and maltitol have recently been developed. The products have now been sold as characteristic sweeteners featuring low calories or non-caries causing properties, and attempts to use them as a food additive have been made. Erythritol is a tetrose alcohol which is soluble in water, and crystallizes very easily into attractive white crystals, and has sweetness corresponding to 75 to 85% of that of sucrose while giving a fresh cool feeling in the mouth. It occurs naturally, too. Erythritol is characterized by being zero in calories. However, erythritol, when used as a main sweetener, leaves an astringent aftertaste in the mouth. Since erythritol is industrially produced from glucose through yeast fermentation, it is 4 to 5 times as costly as sucrose. Therefore, use of erythritol as a chief sweetener increases the cost of the product to an impractical extent. On the other hand, it is impractical to use maltitol as a main sweetener because maltitol tends to cause diarrhea, if taken in a certain amount (20 to 30 g) or more.